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JAGUARS & BIRDS OF BRAZIL
Saturday 23rd July - Friday 5th August 2011
Jaguar (Derek Scott)
Billed as ‘Jaguars and birds of Brazil’, this tour certainly lived up to its name, producing no less than five Jaguars and a total of 400 species of birds, including the much-prized Brazilian Merganser and magnificent Hyacinth Macaw. We were visiting southern Brazil in ‘mid-winter’, as this is the best time to see Jaguars in the Pantanal, and the weather was unusually cool, especially in the Serra da Canastra, where on one morning there was a heavy ground frost. The breeding season for most species was still some way off; few birds were in song and even fewer were responding to playback. Some of the South American migrants had not yet returned from their wintering areas further north, and none of the migrant waders from North America had arrived yet, but these limitations on the birding were a small price to pay for the real chance of seeing a Jaguar – one of the most beautiful and at the same time most elusive of the big cats. Our quest for the Jaguar exceeded all our expectations. In one day on the Cuiabá River in the Pantanal, we encountered five Jaguars and had prolonged views of four of these. Thereafter the focus of attention quickly reverted to birds, and over the next two weeks, we encountered a great selection of some of the finest birds that central and south-eastern Brazil have to offer. These included a whole host of Brazilian endemics, globally threatened species and other special birds such as Greater Rhea, Masked Duck, Chestnut-bellied Guan, Black-fronted Piping-Guan, Bare-faced Curassow, Agami Heron, Boat-billed Heron, Mantled Hawk, Sungrebe, Sunbittern, Red-legged Seriema, Long-tailed Ground-Dove, Golden-capped Parakeet, Long-trained Nightjar, Crescent-chested Puffbird, Campo Miner, Large-tailed Antshrike, Mato Grosso Antbird, Rufous Gnateater, Brasilia Tapaculo, Grey-backed Tachuri, Sharp-tailed Tyrant, Streamer-tailed Tyrant, Cock-tailed Tyrant, Sharpbill, Cinnamon-vented Piha, Ochre-breasted Pipit and Azure-shouldered Tanager. We also encountered a good selection of mammals including half a dozen Giant Otters in the Pantanal and three Giant Anteaters in the Serra da Canastra.
Hyacinth Macaw (Derek Scott)
